by Frank Calvillo
Box Office Alternative Column
Box Office Alternative is a weekly look into additional/optional choices to the big-budget spectacle opening up at your local movie theater every Friday. Oftentimes, titles will consist of little-known or underappreciated work from the same actor/writer/director/producer of said new release, while at other times, the selection for the week just happens to touch upon the same subject in a unique way. Above all, this is a place to revisit and/or discover forgotten cinematic gems of all kinds.
Steven Spielberg hopes to inject a bit of his golden touch this fourth of July weekend with his big-screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG. The fantastic adventure tale will hopefully liven up what has otherwise been a somewhat dismal summer movie season. The film is a marvellous treat that should appeal to children as well as Spielberg enthusiasts, for what will eventually become another bonafide classic from the iconic director.
The release of The BFG gives me the perfect excuse to write about one of Spielberg’s earliest efforts, and his first theatrical feature, the incredibly moving drama The Sugarland Express.
Based on a true story, The Sugarland Express stars Goldie Hawn as Lou Jean Poplin, a previously-jailed twenty-something mother who travels visit her incarcerated husband Clovis (William Atherton). Clovis is happy to see his wife until she informs him that the foster couple who have their toddler are intent on officially adopting him. The young couple immediately set upon breaking Clovis out of jail and eventually end up comandeering the police car of Officer Slide (Michael Saks), whom they take hostage, as they head out towards Sugarland in an effort to get their child back.
One of the more unique aspects of The Sugarland Express is how the film is able to fit into the canon of ’70s movies and still remain a Spielberg film. The way the plot and story move is very in tune with independent films of the ’70s, with scenes playing out in a very organic fashion, and the overall game changing within the blink of an eye. This also extends to the music. There’s no grand, lush John Williams music here. Instead the composer turned in a score in keeping with the re-telling of true-crime tales, while at other times, Williams uses soft, folksy music for the film’s softer moments. Meanwhile, the type of experimental angles and camera techniques that would eventually come to make up the director’s style are everywhere, making the action, much of which is confined to a police car, appear vibrant and alive. It’s also easy to gauge Spielberg’s own social views here, especially with regard to gun control and the importance of family.
While the film has some definite lighter moments, The Sugarland Express never forgets about the suspense or the drama at hand. The way Slide becomes Clovis and Lou Jean’s ally can be called Stockholm syndrome, but there is something a little more special at work due to the fact that he sees them for the pure-hearted people they really are. “He took my gun, but he wasn’t going to use it,” he says with certainty at the film’s end. Likewise, moments such as the one which sees Lou Jean and Clovis watching a drive-in movie, forgetting about the situation they’re in and allowing themselves to just be two young people in love, is such an incredibly human moment in the film. Just as human is the scene in which Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson), the man in charge of the chase, first sees the two is telling and sweet. He understands them in a way, but is still determined to bring them in. Adding to the tragic nature as well as the suspense is the sense throughout of Clovis fearing how his and Lou Jean’s story will end, while still clinging to the hope that his family will survive in tact.
There’s a definite theme throughout The Sugarland Express about criminals becoming celebrities and instant fame in general, which is evidenced throughout the film by the many people who have purposely parked by the side of the road (after hearing news about Lou Jean and Clovis on the radio) to wave at the couple as they drive by. As they stop by a local store where a woman gives Lou Jean some rollers, hair spray and other cosmetics, Lou Jean thanks her before the woman takes her hands and says, with so much love, “It’s your baby. Don’t let anyone take him away from you.” Things escalate when the trio decide to drive through a local town, which welcomes the amateur outlaws with a marching band fit for a fourth of July parade. It’s both amusing and touching to watch local townspeople hand over toys and money to the young couple, while girls steal kisses from Officer Slide and young boys take pictures and request autographs. The whole sequence gives off such a warm feeling at the thought of so much love and support coming from strangers who see past the fugitive exteriors that has been painted by the media.
Atherton is so great here that it’s easy to forget this is the same guy who terrorized the Ghostbusters and made a career out of playing uptight yuppies. Meanwhile, Ben Johnson does the kind of sturdy, reliable work that he could always be counted on as the Sheriff heading the chase of the young couple, and Saks manages some great character moments of his own.
All eyes are on Hawn, however, in one of her rare dramatic roles, and she doesn’t disappoint for a minute. It’s hard not to find yourself immediately taken with the actress’s mesmerizing performance, which is chock full of emotions ranging from giddiness to full on desperation. Her big scene in the movie’s final moments is nothing short of spectacular; audiences would be hard pressed to believe that this is the Goldie they know and love.
While critics unanimously praised Spielberg, Hawn, and The Sugarland Express as a whole, audiences reacted somewhat differently, with some attendees leaving in anger or tears after having thought they’d bought a ticket to a Goldie Hawn comedy. It didn’t help that the film was given a sub-standard release in the dead of winter where it quickly failed to turn the kind of box office profit it otherwise could have.
Today, The Sugarland Express stands as one of the few Spielberg movies to end on a downbeat note. And yet so much of the film is seeped in warmth and humanity. I love the idea behind two parents risking everything, especially their lives, for their son. The two characters’ simplistic and innocent nature is never anything but endearing and heartwarming, so that it becomes incredibly easy to forgive the reckless, criminal activity they commit in an effort to get their son back. In the end, Spielberg’s depiction of two young kids who just wanted to be a family, despite society saying they shouldn’t be, is one which is impossible to forget.
